Tour de France: André Greipel blasts to stage six victory in Montpelier

Splits in the bunch see Daryl Impey become the first South African Maillot Jaune

André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) took his first victory of the 2013 Tour de France in a sprint royale at the end of the sixth stage, between Aix-en-Provence and Montpelier. The German champion was led into the final 200 metres by his teammates and, once he had opened up his sprint he was able to hold off the challenge from Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) and Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) all the way to the line.

“I’m of course very happy with this victory, that can be seen as a statement after yesterday’s back luck,” said Greipel afterwards. “I’ve known for long we have a great team, but today’s lead out to the sprint was fantastic. Lars Bak and Frederik Willems worked very hard during the race to keep us constantly in the front. The pace was set up by Adam Hansen, so we could go into the final km with three riders: Marcel Sieberg, Jürgen Roelandts and Greg Hendrson.

“It’s never easy to succeed a sprint, but today I was guided to the finish in a perfect way,” he added. “The green jersey is not per se a goal, but I aim to take as many points as possible. It is too early to make conclusions so we will see how it goes. [Team manager] Marc Sergeant did a very good job this morning in the team bus. He said it was important to focus on today’s sprint and we definitely managed to do this.”

The 176.5km stage was otherwise largely uneventful, on a day expected to be affected by crosswinds as it traversed the southern French flatlands on the northern edge of the Camargue. The win was from the peloton’s rear for much of the time, with none of the expected splits in the bunch occurring, with the main action in the peloton coming with a number of crashes that saw several riders - including Cavendish - hit the tarmac.

The early part of the stage saw a solo break from Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis), who quickly managed to get 5’30” ahead of the peloton, but the Spanish rider was unable to survive alone in the windy conditions and was back in the fold after little more than an hour.

After the Spanish rider had been recaptured the peloton stayed together for the remainder of the stage, with the teams of the overall favourites keeping their leaders close to the front to avoid trouble. The sprinters’ teams then lifted the pace into the final kilometres, with Lotto-Belisol taking control with two and a half to go, and launching Greipel perfectly to the line.

A split in the bunch saw most of the peloton lose five seconds to the sprinters and, with Orica-GreenEdge teammates Daryl Impey and Simon Gerrans finishing ether side of the gap, the Maillot Jaune passed from Gerrans’ shoulders to Impey’s, who became the first South African ever to lead the Tour de France.

Juan Angel Maté is game for a break but is in a minority of one

Maté escaped as soon as the flag had been dropped at the end of the neutralised zone, but nobody went with him. By the 19th kilometre the Spanish rider had opened up a lead of 5’30” as the Orica-AIS and Omega Pharma-Quick Step teams marshalled the peloton behind him.

Out on his own in the stiffening wind, however, Maté soon found his advantage falling, and he found himself picked up again after just 44km.

André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) won the intermediate sprint at Maussane-les-Alpilles after 63km, ahead of Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale). There was then a small flurry of activity over the top of the 4th category Col de la Vayède, five kilometres further on, as Kanstantsin Siutsou (Team Sky) pulled a little way clear and provoked a reaction from the Movistar and BMC Racing teams.

The only effect on the peloton, however, was to see Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) dropped. The former French champion had been suffering from digestive problems for the previous tow days, and had been among the fallers at the previous day’s finish; over the top of the climb he was two minutes behind as the peloton began the high speed descent.

The peloton’s speed dropped a little at the 100km to go point, as several teams brought their general classification riders forward in anticipation of the expected crosswinds. Bouhanni was drifting further backwards, however, now only in the company of his FDJ.fr team car, and a few kilometres later would be forced to abandon.

As the wind began to rise a little Team Sky hit the front and began to string out the peloton on the approach to the bridge across the wide Rhône river, in Tarascon after 84km. The speed set by the British team was not so great, however, to prevent Katusha team leader Joaquim Rodríguez from rejoining after a small crash.

With the Rhône crossing having passed without incident several other teams moved forward to keep their leaders safe through the streets of the town. A succession of teams then took their turns to lead the peloton for a few kilometres at a time, with Saxo-Tinkoff, Movistar and Belkin all coming forward.

Neither the pace in the peloton, nor the speed of the wind, was enough to cause any splits in the compact peloton, however. There was another lone rider in trouble at the back of the field, however, as Frederik Kessiakoff (Astana) was eventually forced to pull out.

Having passed through the feedzone at high speed, the peloton eased up with 80km to go as riders went back to their team cars for food and drink.

Tailwinds instead of crosswinds keep the bunch together at speed

With the wind now on the riders backs the peloton then continued at speed, as Orica-GreenEdge and Team Sky set the pace. The only incident to occur on the pan-flat roads saw green jersey Sagan stop to change both of his wheels, with the high profile of his original pair apparently a little unstable in the conditions. With 40km to go the Slovakian champion was making his way back up to the front of the peloton, as Belkin and Europcar moved up alongside Orica-GreenEdge.

With 35km to go there was a crash involving Cavendish and, shortly afterwards, BMC Racing began to lift the pace through the town of Lunel. Entering the final 30km the British champion was 42 seconds behind the peloton, with teammate Peter Velits for company, but the rest of the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team moved up to the front to slow the bunch down and allow him to catch up.

With the Manxman safely back up near the front of the peloton, Saxo-Tinkoff led the race into the final 25km, with Team Sky moving up as another exposed section approached. Belkin then also moved up and the pace of the peloton began to lift considerably, with the rear of the bunch strung out in the gutter as the British and Dutch team powered into the final 20km.

As the peloton entered the final 15km, however, Omega Pharma-Quick Step moved forward en masse and began to set a fierce pace. Saxo-Tinkoff still wanted to have its say, however, and started its own paceline on the opposite side of the road, and the two-pronged peloton continued towards the small, unclassified climbs close to the finish.

The sprinters teams finally begin to ramp it up but an overall contender comes down

Omega Pharma-Quick Step asserted itself one more but, with 11km to go, a crash near the back of the bunch saw Janez Brajkovič (Astana) come down, as riders appeared to hit a traffic island in the middle of the road. The Slovenian took several minutes to get back onto his replacement bike, and would lose a lot of time by the time he had limped his way to the finish.

With eight kilometres to go the pace dropped again as the peloton entered the outskirts of Montpelier, which saw Saxo-Tinkoff move forward again. Omega Pharma-Quick Step then began to accelerate again as the road tilted upwards, which began to see several riders dropped off the back.

Saxo-Tinkoff, Team Sky and BMC Racing were also to the fore, keeping their leaders out of danger on the city streets. Lotto-Belisiol was also massing forward, but the pace dropped again with five kilometres left, as no team wanted to do too much too early.

Argos-Shimano was the team to take it up, as it moved ahead of Omega Pharma-Quick Step, with almost the entire Dutch team lined up on the head of the peloton.

With a kilometre and a half to go though, Lotto-Belisol moved forward in strength and led under the flamme rouge. The Belgian team led Greipel into the final 200 metres with Cavendish, Sagan and Kittel lined up behind him. The German champion had the fast line next to the barriers though and, once he was up to speed, he was able to hold them off with ease.

Impey finished in 13th place for the second straight day and, with Gerrans back in 48th place - behind the five-second split - the South African moved into the race lead.